"Stop and think before you act."  Has this ever helped anyone?!  I mean, if it refers to signing a contract that commits you to life, as in marriage, then, by all means halt and think hard!

But in the heat of a moment, it is very difficult to stop and think, instead we react.  Often, we don't like our reactions, and we chide ourselves, "If I could just learn to stop and think before I react.  Uuugggh!"  We also explain a bad reaction with, "I don't know where that came from.  It just came out of nowhere, because that's really not me."  Yeah, right.   That is simply not true.  It is you, Pogo.  Our reactions reflect what's inside.  And I don't think "stop and think" is very useful in these situations.   If we have to stop (stop what?) and think, it is because we are already thinking and feeling the wrong thing.  Are we stopping and thinking (in that heated moment) about how wrong our thoughts are, or just how to react in a more appropriate way so that our hearts are disguised?  

Well, then, how do we change our sinful reactions if it's not by stopping and thinking?

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."  Luke 6:45

Changing sinful reactions is no less than changing who we are, and that takes a lifetime.  How do we change who we are?  First we must receive a new heart, which the Father gives when we believe on Jesus.  We are born again.  But we are babes, needing food, drink, and exercise.

How do babies learn to speak?  They are created by God with the necessary apparatus for speech, but they still must hear lots of words for quite a while before they utter the first sound.  

Changing our reactions, making them more like Christ, comes with abiding in, living with Him in close communion.  Remember those disciples in Acts who reflected that they had "been with Jesus"?

Do you think they were stopping and thinking before they spoke?  I don't. I think they spent LOTS of time with Him, learning of Him, being sanctified.  And it showed, they smelled like Jesus!

Now in practice, we have all experienced times where we were in that heated moment, someone provoked us, and a thought came to mind (very different from stopping and thinking) and we reacted differently than we would have last year or yesterday.  That's the fruit of abiding!  Like the day when "all of a sudden" a baby speaks a real word!  It's not all of a sudden -- it came after months of abiding with the spoken word.  As we abide with the Living Word, day by day, we, too, will react differently, and it will surprise us!